Power Out Map
– 0% of Rice out 0 customers out in Kansas

Power outage history

Rice County Kansas

5.5hours

without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025

25th most of 81 in Kansas 16% below the national median

Worst outage on record Jan 19, 2017 71% of customers out · 90% back in 3.0 hours
Hours without power, average customer per year 5.5h / yr State average 3.0 h · national median 6.6 h
Major outages a year 5.5 Peaks over 10% of customers or 50,000 customers
Typical time to restore 90% 1hours Median across major outages, from the peak
Longest single outage 3.4days Jan 16, 2017, over 1% of customers out
Outage hours on storm days 49% Share falling on days with a NOAA storm report here
Worst year 2021 12 hours without power, average customer
Electricity customers 2,664 ORNL customer model · 8 well-covered years

Every day since 2015

Eleven years, one night at a time

Each cell is a day. The brighter it is, the larger the share of Rice's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.

20152016201720182019202020212022202320242025
0%100% of customers out

Year by year

Hours in the dark, per customer

2021 was the worst well-recorded year, at 12 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.

Rice, hours without power per customer

RiceUS median countyKansas average
0 10 20 30 40 11 ’15 18 ’16 34 ’17 1.4 ’18 5.7 ’19 3.2 ’20 12 ’21 4.7 ’22 4.1 ’23 9.0 ’24 3.9 ’25 US 6.6 KS 3.0

The record

The biggest outages since 2015

Ranked by customer-hours lost: customers out multiplied by how long they stayed out. Times are local.

Began Storm Peak out Share Lasted 90% restored Customer-hours
Jan 16, 2017 Ice storm 1,880 71% 3.4 d 3.0 h 47k
Dec 15, 2021 Windstorm 2,288 86% 28 h 23 h 26k
Apr 26, 2016 No storm report 2,664 100% 27 h 9.5 h 18k
May 24, 2017 No storm report 2,664 100% 2.0 h 2.0 h 5.3k
Jul 14, 2023 Thunderstorms 713 27% 14 h 11 h 5.0k
Mar 1, 2022 No storm report 2,168 81% 2.0 h 48 min 4.3k
Jul 10, 2016 No storm report 960 36% 6.0 h 4.0 h 4.0k
May 26, 2019 Thunderstorms 490 18% 27 h 5.2 h 3.8k
May 29, 2015 No storm report 2,664 100% 1.5 h 1.5 h 3.5k
Mar 7, 2017 No storm report 491 18% 7.0 h 4.0 h 3.3k
Jun 17, 2017 No storm report 2,451 92% 12 h 3.5 h 3.3k
Apr 16, 2017 No storm report 2,664 100% 1.2 h 1.2 h 3.3k

After the peak

How fast the lights come back

Each line is one major outage, from its peak. The amber line is the typical path.

0% 25% 50% 75% 100% peak+24h+48h+72h+96h half back by +2h 90% by +4h

When it happens

The outage clock

Customer-hours out by month (rings, January innermost) and local hour, 2018–2025.

00061218 Jan inside

What was happening

Weather behind the outages

Each outage is matched to NOAA storm reports for Rice from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.

  • No storm on record 51%
  • Windstorm 26%
  • Thunderstorms 19%
  • Winter storm 4.7%

Who keeps the lights on

Utilities serving Rice

As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole Kansas territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.

Utility Type Outage min / yr Excl. major storms Outages / yr Residential ¢/kWh Customers
Evergy Kansas Central, Inc Investor Owned 126 80 1.17 14.6 344k
DS&O Electric Cooperative, Inc. KS 197 49 1.39 15.5 91k
Ark Valley Elec Coop Assn, Inc KS – – – 16.0 47k
Midwest Energy Inc Cooperative 581 314 2.68 12.0 30k
City of Sterling KS – – – – 9.6k

EIA Form 861, latest year each utility reported. Outage minutes are SAIDI, the yearly minutes the average customer goes without power; outages a year are SAIFI.

Next door

Neighbouring counties

Across Kansas

Where it is darkest

Hours / yr64+

All Kansas counties →

About these numbers

Notes

Outages come from the EAGLE-I record of utility outage maps collected every 15 minutes by Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Hours without power are customer-hours divided by the county's 2,664 electricity customers. Averages use well-covered years from 2018. Outages shorter than 15 minutes, and utilities that publish no outage map, are not in the record, so these figures understate the total. How every number is made →